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Easter is one holiday in particular celebrated with a lot of plastic. Candy wrappers and hidden Easter eggs make for a lot of waste. I wish I would have thought to make this post before Easter, but until I had a plastic, candy filled egg in hand, I didn't think about it. One of the most important, and sometimes most difficult, ways of reducing plastic consumption is just to realize what roles it plays in your life. Yesterday, it was of holiday cheer, but there are definitly ways to celebrate without excess plastic waste.

1) Hard boiled eggs! Delicious, healthier than candy, and can be made just as colorful as plastic easter eggs. Yes, they take a little more work, but it's worth it to help the Earth. Hide them for all the fun of the Easter egg hunt!

2) While it's always good to be healthy, a big part of Easter is the candy. Instead of buying candies at the supermarket, make your own fudge, caramel hard candies, or chocolate/caramel covered apples! DIY is a delicious way to…

Thanks to my new crush on Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong, dildos have become relevant to my life again. Yep, I'm going to talk about environmentally friendly sex toys. Masturbation is perfectly healthy, good for sexual exploration, and is the way most people have their first orgasms (I learned that in my college sex ed class). However, as a society we don't really talk about it much, so fair warning, this post may be uncomfortable, but it's worth talking about. I mean, this blog is supposed to be an in depth examination of environmental health, right? Right. Here we go.

Most vibrators and dildos are made of either silicon or hard plastic, neither of which are biodegradable or good for the environment. Lessening plastic usage is one of my major goals, and this situation is no exception. But no one wants to give up sex toys, so what are the green alternatives?

One is to just use the sex toys you already have. Why buy a new toy when you have a perfectly good one? The e…

Our throw away culture is one of the major problems when it comes to the environment. From our oceans filling with plastic, to the rapid use of natural resources to make products, our society's attitude of dispose-ability is having many negative effects on our planet. However, today in my English class we had a discussion on the dispose-ability of people. About how our culture simplifies people down to commodities and throws them away once their "value" is gone. Obviously there are problems with this, starting with the fact that people are not commodities, but it got me thinking. I decided to go to the local mall and look at advertisements to see if they were really commodifying people, and if so, how. This is what I found.

The first things that caught my eye were the obvious. Over-sexualized images of women with lips slightly parted and eyes blank. Mostly found at Victoria's Secret--no surprise.

A fast food chain actively trying to reduce their waste? AND encouraging people to use less plastic bags? Heck yes!
However, I'm always sceptical of brands trying to 'greenwash' products. Making the salad bowls and napkins out of recycled materials is a great place to start, but if Subway really wants to make a difference, there's an important step they need to take. While it's great they have a poster saying to go bagless, there's a much easier way to get people to do so: don't hand them one.

Face it, we tend to take the path of least resistance. If it takes work to opt out of a plastic bag, odds are most people will take it just because they don't remember to say something, they feel embarrassed, or any other number of reasons. If Subway, or any cooperation for that matter, wanted to make a big difference, they could switch to an opt in system. Subway sandwiches could come without a bag. Still have them o…

I've been trying to use less plastic, eat healthier, and spend less money. Of course those are all goals I've been tempted to break--recently all at once. This week I had a coworker tell me about the new Chocolate Shamrock Shake at McDonald's. Now, I have always loved Shamrock Shakes, but mint and chocolate TOGETHER in one glorious milkshake? Yes, please!
Except McDonald's doesn't let you bring your own cup to fill, which would mean using a wasteful plastic cup. And what about that eating healthier thing? I'm all for a treat now and then, but there's no way that calorie monster could be considered in any way healthy. And it would be money I didn't need to spend.

Still, none of that was enough to dissuade me from getting one asap.

Then I actually got off work, it was late, and I just wanted to go home. There's not a McDonald's between my work and my house, so I'd just be lazy tonight and go get it tomorrow. But when 'tomorrow' came, I…

Thanks to fabrics such as Nylon and Polyester, a lot of clothes are made from plastic these days. With spring around the corner, a new season of styles is on the way. If you're looking for some new pieces, skip the plastic, and start a new trend with super cute wrap pants made from 100% silk!

I've loved wrap pants ever since I first discovered them, but now I love them even more for how eco-friendly they are. Made from 100% silk these pants are biodegradable--as if you'd ever want to throw them out. They come in all sorts of colours and designs, and all of them that I've come across are double sided, so each one can be switched up. Pair them with a plain, 100% cotton t-shirt and you have a beautiful, unique spring look that's plastic free. Even though they're pants, they're perfect through spring and summer because they are light weight and keep you cool. No more dying in jeans if I haven't shaved!

As someone who is very blonde, I will never recommend giving up mascara, but as of yet I have not found a good plastic free alternative. Instead, I've come up with a compromise that works for me. It reduces my plastic consumption without forcing me to give up my favorite makeup tool.

Here's how it goes: On special occasions, important days, and those times I just feel like looking extra good, I go ahead and use mascara. On the day to day, just school and work, I skip it in favor of an eyeliner and eyelash curler combo.

After using both the eyeliner and the eyelash curler, I get a similar emphasis around the eye that looks perfectly fine for casual days. It uses less plastic, and still looks good.